Starting this January, IBM will no longer pay a wage “premium” to its U.S. employees who work late shifts and other family-unfriendly hours. This recently announced move will cost these IBM workers up to $200 per week. IBM must be deep in recessionary red ink, right? Well, not exactly. IBM is actually swimming in surplus, a pile of excess dollars high enough to have let the tech giant spend $11.8 billion so far this year buying its own shares of stock back off the open market. This massive buyback has helped jack up IBM’s share price — and that higher price should make 2010 another boffo pay year for IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. The IBM chief exec took home $21.2 million last year, after axing over 10,000 jobs. IBM’s U.S. payroll has now dropped 30,000 since 2003. IBM’s low-wage Indian workforce has, since then, jumped over 60,000 . . .
In India, where billionaire ranks have tripled since 2008, the richest billionaire of them all is now putting the finishing touches on what may be, speculates the Los Angeles Times, “the most expensive home in history.” Press reports are placing the price-tag on petrochemical king Mukesh Ambani’s new abode — an amazing structure that soars 27 stories over the slums of Mumbai — at $1 billion. Servicing all those floors for Ambani, his wife, three kids, and mother will be an estimated 600 staff. The Ambani clan won’t move in for good until late next month. Once in, they may never leave. Their new not-so-humble home features a 50-seat theater and an “ice room” outfitted with a snow flurry-making machine — for escaping Mumbai's oppressive heat. Any Ambani who should want to leave won’t have to hassle the Mumbai traffic. Their new palace boasts three rooftop helipads . . .
In China, you won’t find any billionaires in personal skyscrapers, mainly because China’s super rich simply haven’t yet stashed away as much cash as their Indian counterparts. India's three richest, says the latest Hurun Rich List, hold a greater combined fortune than the 24 richest Chinese. Smaller fortunes have China’s rich concentrating on more prosaic pleasures — like luxury yachts. Azimut, the Italian upscale boatmaker, has sold 30 yachts in China since 2005, at up to $15 million each. Why not more? China lacks a luxury marina infrastructure. But now under construction near Beijing: a 750-berth yacht club. That ought to help speed the cultural shift among China’s rich, says Asia-Pacific Boating editor Ryan Swift. The “wealthy guys,” Swift explains, used to relish “very expensive karaoke bars" and “shiny objects.” Now they’re starting, he exults, “to embrace” the high seas . . .
In Russia, “shiny objects” still seem to have their allure. Late last month, at Moscow’s sixth annual millionaire fair, luxury retailers showcased a diamond-encrusted saucepan with a gold-plated handle. The price: just a bit over $200,000. The millionaire fair did sport more practical offerings. A gold necklace, outfitted with Yakut diamonds and a hidden hands-free USB hub, could be had for only $125,000. Russia currently sports 62 billionaire households . . .
Rupert Murdoch, the 79-year-old media mogul behind Fox News, has no plans to retire anytime soon. But he’s already thinking about the experiences he wants his successor to have had. Chief among these: the experience of calling him dad. One of his six kids, the billionaire has announced, will be “sure” to “emerge” as the next CEO at his News Corp. empire. That one now figures to be the 37-year-old James Murdoch, a Harvard dropout who bankrolled a hip-hop music label before grabbing a News Corp. executive slot. James calls the lessons learned from his father “the greatest advantage I’ve had in life.” In a recent interview, the young Murdoch even cited one specific lesson from dad he holds close to his heart: “the importance of making our own way.”
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